Faculty Stories & Voices
Collectively, MS&E faculty have deep expertise in two major disciplines: quantitative modeling and the behavioral sciences. Learn more about their careers and research below.
Looking for more stories & voices? Many MS&E faculty have been subjects of oral history interviews, recorded by the Stanford Historical Society and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Explore MS&E oral histories
Ronald Howard
Former students and colleagues of the late Professor Ronald Howard share stories from his life, his influences, and his impact.
Read Prof. Howard's story
Ashish Goel
As he begins his term as Fortinet Founders Chair of MS&E, Professor Goel discusses his vision for MS&E—which is to leverage our strengths in optimization, machine learning, operations research, entrepreneurship, management, and more—to help solve society's most pressing problems.
Get to know Professor Goel ▶️
Tijana Zrnic
Professor Zrnic tells the story of her journey to MS&E from her PhD studies at UC Berkeley, to postdoctoral studies at Stanford and at an AI startup. Her research develops safeguards to determine when AI systems should seek data input from human experts due to low data quality.
Get to know Professor Zrnic ▶️
Renyuan Xu
Professor Xu arrives at MS&E after being on the faculty at New York University and the University of Southern California. Her research develops interdisciplinary tools that combine probability, statistics, and optimization to solve large-scale problems in financial systems.
Get to know Professor Xu ▶️
Ruizhe Jia
Professor Jia joins MS&E after completing his PhD in operations research at Columbia University. His research aims to improve the efficiency and transparency of financial markets to improve our daily lives.
Get to know Professor Jia ▶️
Nick Bambos
A strong vision helps position MS&E as a global leader, says Nick Bambos, who recalls his time leading MS&E through a time of technological change.
Read Prof. Bambos's story
Peter Glynn
Strategic investments in the people of MS&E have been central to its strength, says Peter Glynn as he recounts his time leading the department as its chair.
Read Prof. Glynn's story
Pamela Hinds
Professor Hinds shares how her research in management informs her leadership as the Fortinet Founders Chair of MS&E and how the department has increasingly emphasized social impact as it has grown and evolved.
Hear Prof. Hinds's story 🎧
Alicia Sheares
Professor Sheares discusses her research studying the oft-hidden barriers faced by entrepreneurs of color, and how MS&E's interdisciplinary environment is what attracted her to the department.
Read Prof. Sheares's story
Elisabeth Paté-Cornell
MS&E has always been about its students, according to Prof. Paté-Cornell, who recounts her experiences leading MS&E as it was formed in the year 2000.
Read Prof. Paté-Cornell's story
Frederick Hillier
Prof. Hillier looks back on his early days as a pioneer of operations research at Stanford and reflects on how the field has evolved.
Read Prof. Hillier's story
Melissa Valentine
The first HAI sabbatical scholar describes her research on how companies best incorporate machine learning.
Read Prof. Valentine's story
2022 new faculty cohort
MS&E welcomed five new faculty members in fall 2022! We caught up with our newest assistant professors to ask about their current work and why MS&E is the right fit for what they hope to accomplish.
Meet our new faculty
Tom Byers
The faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Prof. Byers discusses the value of entrepreneurship education, ethics and DE&I.
Read more
Kathleen Eisenhardt
A pioneering female faculty member, Prof. Eisenhardt eschewed conventional number-crunching to show how in-depth case studies best reveal the improv culture of high-growth companies.
Read & watch more ▶️
Yinyu Ye
An aptitude for athletics helped transform Prof. Ye from a rice farmer during China’s Cultural Revolution into a world-renowned scholar.
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Markus Pelger
"I think risk management is relevant for everyone—the better you manage risks, the better your decisions are."
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Itai Ashlagi
"I can't think of a better intellectual environment for my research than MS&E, where the faculty and students share a common goal of designing systems and policies that impact our lives."
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Robert McGinn
Prof. McGinn specializes in the field of ethics in engineering, and recently released his book, The Ethical Engineer: Contemporary Concepts and Cases.
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Bob Sutton
“I was always fascinated by how differently people behaved in different organizations—even when they did more or less the same work.”
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Melissa Valentine
“In our work so far, it’s been amazing to watch how quickly a group of people from around the world come together to complete complex projects.”
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Jose Blanchet
"I started to re-adjust and research things that I thought would be exciting and appropriate for the Stanford environment and the valley. This is for me, in many ways, like being born again in terms of the types of research that I’m pursuing."
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Aaron Sidford
"I am excited to push the theory of optimization and algorithm design to new heights!"
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